PBN: Paolino purchases three properties downtown for $60M

Paolino Properties has purchased a package of three high-profile properties in Providence’s Financial District for $60 million, the company announced Wednesday.

The acquisitions include the 20-story tower at 100 Westminster St., the five-story building next door at 30 Kennedy Plaza and the Weybosset Street Metropark lot across the street that features the propped-up façade of the former Providence National Bank Building.

The article goes into plans for the buildings and vacant parcel which all sound great, look at me, I’m all surprised over here. One wonders, and one is not just me people are talking, where the former Mayor is getting funds for all this. Wonders about funding instill fears about the viability of the proposed plans. Fingers crossed good things happen, would be very good for Kennedy Plaza as well as Westminster Street.

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Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

“Paolino has no immediate plans for the parking lot, he said, as he needs the spaces to accommodate office tenants. He raised the prospect of building a parking garage there, perhaps with retail space on the ground floor. “I’m going to do all I can to save that façade and incorporate it into a development,” Paolino said during a media event held on the 16{+t}{+h} floor of 100 Westminster. “If I built a garage there, I don’t know if I could do more than that.” – excerpt from expanded ProJo article

How do you all read the last sentence in that paragraph? Is Paolino saying he doesn’t think he could do more than a parking garage at this site?

I don’t know what he meant, but I don’t think there is any room in our market to allow for the construction of an office building in this location, we have too much vacancy for spec office construction and no clear tenant looking to move here. We have more demand in our market for apartments, but financing for new construction is really difficult. Financing for parking garages is not difficult, at this point that seems most likely to be built if anything is, sadly.

It would be great to see a large residential tower go up on that site, like the one that was originally planned, with ground floor retail space that could connect to the arcade and 100 Westminster across the street. However, then what will happen to the Industrial Trust Co. Tower across the street, if the market becomes flooded with new real estate. I honestly feel if both towers were developed at once, and then marketed well, people would move in, hopefully attracting new businesses and entertainment, etc.

The parking lot makes sense at the moment right now. If it does get built, it should be built with the intention to allow for a skyscraper or whatever to be built on top of it, when the market allows. Ideally though I wouldn’t want to see a parking garage at that location, while it is in a good location, in proximity to things, I don’t feel Westminster or Weybosset Street should handle any more auto traffic.

Can one feasibly make the argument that all these garages have a connection to demand for apartments downtown? I think the assumption is that demand is low because there’s not enough parking, but maybe it’s the reverse. So long as you can park, why live downtown? Why not just commute?